Bronco Mendenhall is one of college football’s most experienced coaches, but Bronco’s success goes far beyond football. He deeply cares about and is committed to growing the young men he coaches. Bronco has consistently built programs that emphasize character, discipline and excellence in every aspect of these student-athlete lives, helping to create proven leaders.
Bronco returned to Utah State University after serving as the head coach of the University of New Mexico last year. In total, he has 18 years of head coaching experience, including a six-year stint at the University of Virginia and 11 seasons at Brigham Young University (BYU).
With a 140-88 career record as a head coach, including taking Virginia to its first Orange Bowl in 2019, more than 60 of Bronco’s former players have signed contracts to play in the NFL.
He was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2006 and was nominated by the Football Writers Association of America as one of nine finalists for the illustrious Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.
During BYU’s six-year tenure as a member of the Mountain West under Bronco, the team won two conference championships. He led the Cougars to a bowl game appearance in each of his 11 seasons as head coach, and during that time, BYU was one of only 11 programs in all of the FBS to go to a bowl in all 11 years. Under his leadership, BYU tied for seventh among all FBS programs for the most Academic All-American awardees.
After leaving Provo, Bronco was hired as the head coach at Virginia in 2016. Taking over a struggling program that had not posted a winning record in five seasons, he led a strong turnaround. The team made bowl games in three consecutive years beginning in 2017 and won the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division in 2019 with a 6-2 mark, playing Clemson for the ACC title. Virginia was bowl-eligible in the final five seasons he coached, the longest streak in school history since 1996-2000.
After a two-year hiatus from coaching, Bronco returned to the Mountain West, taking over as head coach of New Mexico. In his lone season, the Lobos went 5-7, with two players being named first-team all-MW and nine overall receiving all-conference honors. New Mexico ranked fourth in the FBS in total yards, averaging 484.2 per game.
A Utah local, Bronco graduated from American Fork High School. He began his collegiate playing career at Snow College, where he was an All-American and team captain during the team’s NJCAA National Championship season in 1985. From there, he played safety for Oregon State University, where he served as captain his senior season and later as a graduate assistant on the football staff. He would later coach as an assistant at Snow College, Northern Arizona, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico and BYU.
The move back to Utah allows Bronco to be closer to his 93-year-old mother, Lenore Mendenhall, who lives in Alpine. He and his wife, Holly, have three sons: Cutter, Breaker and Raeder.
